Knicks look putrid in every way in loss to Magic that gives David Fizdale a harsh dose of reality

Well, that was embarrassing. If you thought the Jets stunk Sunday, get a load of the trash heap across the Lincoln Tunnel.

Advertisement

The Knicks were smoked at home by the Magic, 115-89, a team that isn’t very good and was missing its best player. The Knicks were so bad they trailed by 20 points after the first quarter and were booed off the court.

They were so bad, they managed 13 assists. Total.

They were so bad, they missed 23 of 28 3-pointers. That’s hard to do.

They were so bad, the crowd chanted for Ron Baker and then sarcastically cheered his free throw in garbage time because, well, this game had nothing else going for it.

“We just didn’t give it our all tonight,” said Tim Hardaway Jr., who shot 2 of 12 with seven points. “I hate to say it. We didn’t compete the way we should. (Orlando) didn’t do anything special. We missed our shots. Made it hard on ourselves.”

The idea that the Knicks can attract a top free agent playing like this is faulty, to say the least. Coach David Fizdale’s vision for the Knicks is fizzling out. He wanted a gritty defensive club that was fast, athletic and pushed the pace. They entered Sunday’s game last in the league in assists, 25th out of 30 teams in defensive efficiency, 23rd in offensive efficiency and 21st in pace, according to ESPN.

In other words, Fizdale is being hit with a reality check, just like Jeff Hornacek before him. The plan always looks better before tipoff. And Fizdale said afterward he will evaluate the starting lineup.

“Coaches got to adjust to the roster. It all sounds great when you come in and you say, ‘I want to do this, I want to do that.’ But you gotta work with what you have right now,” Fizdale said. “So my job right now is to try to take them and try to put them in the best scenario to give them a chance to win games and to have success and grow. So our pace is definitely slow since then but I’m still emphasizing it, getting it up the court. I think the most important thing for our team is being organized. And our pace suffered because of that.”

“We don’t have (3-point shooters) right now,” the coach added later. “We don’t have a team loaded full of spread guys who can just shoot – where you’re getting up 40 threes a night and doing all of that.”

Orlando (6-7) played without Aaron Gordon, who was out with an ankle sprain, and still dominated at the Garden. The Knicks (4-10) dropped their second straight and start a three-game road trip in OKC on Wednesday.

Frank Ntilikina, who has struggled offensively since being moved into the starting lineup at point guard, logged only six minutes and sat the entire second half while Trey Burke filled in.

“We wanted to look at something different,” Fizdale said. “Frank was struggling to shoot the ball in the second half. I feel like Trey’s role with us is to get in and get buckets so I wanted to try something different.”

Different didn’t work Sunday. Nothing worked. The Knicks fell into a 20-point hole after 12 minutes and never recovered.